New Finds

Beutron

This is a style #660, in the smallest size made by G.Herring, about 11mm or 5 lignes. They date from 1949- early 1950s. The detail from advertising below quotes from the card: ‘They launder and Dry Clean. Hot irons can’t hurt them.’

Brisbane Telegraph, 24th October 1951 page 7.

According to The Plastics Historical Society (https://plastiquarian.com/?page_id=14228) casein was/is a good material for buttons because it readily took a surface dye, allowing for quick response to changes in fashion, polished well, is a beautiful material and “it is resistant to washing, dry cleaning and can withstand momentary contact with a hot iron – unlike most other competitive early plastics materials, but with the advent of the newer plastics after 1945 its use gradually declined.” As clothing was still often washed by boiling in coppers, and increasingly in washing machines, washability was an important factor for housewives.

Glass buttons, and therefore imported.

After a decade of selling ‘Originals’ on plain white cards, and having lost a court case to stop rival General Plastics coping their style of card with added cotton, the former decided to change the styling of all their lines of buttons. The Cards above and below were two of the new styles adopted in the early 1960s.

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